If you’ve looked at the 2014 edition of our annual dining guide, BITE magazine (and I’m sure you have), you already know that Orlando is experiencing a restaurant renaissance. Chefs all over town are combining amazing local products with innovative technique to create more delicious dishes every day. The only problem for diners – and talk about a good problem to have! – is how to keep up with all these new places … and how to afford to eat at all of them. Enter Bite30.
Bite30 is the new incarnation of Orlando Weekly’s longstanding Orlando Restaurant Week. For 30 days (June 1-30), restaurants around Orlando offer prix fixe menus to adventurous diners, and smart diners get multi-course meals, often for the price of a regular-menu entree. There are set menus for both lunch and dinner – at least two courses for lunch, and at least three courses for dinner – at prices ranging from $10-$30. This is the restaurants’ chance to show off; most chefs give diners significantly more than their money’s worth, because savvy restaurateurs know that getting a new customer in the door is half the battle. And savvy eaters will take advantage of this.
IMO, the best way to maximize your Bite30 experience is with a group – choose a place you’ve never been, order as many different dishes from the Bite30 menu as you can, and share, share, share. It’s absolutely the best way to try dozens of new restaurants (or new dishes at old favorite spots) without much risk to the wallet.
In addition, this year’s Instagram contest is a doozy. One winner each week will win a gift card from each participating restaurant. (Yes, all of them!) To enter, participants must follow Orlando Weekly on Instagram (@OrlandoWeekly) and include the #bite30 hashtag in their Instagram photo captions; photos must be taken at a participating Bite30 restaurant. Participants are encouraged to snap photos of food, dining out with friends, beer, wine, cocktails, restaurant staff and anything else that captures the essence of the Bite30 experience.
We’re adding new spots to the Bite30 site daily, so keep checking back – but as of press time participating restaurants included the Strand (see above), K Restaurant, Artisan’s Table, Cityfish, Santiago’s Bodega, Le Coq au Vin, Txokos Basque Kitchen and many more. See you in June!
